Laryngeal masks are made of plastic and are usually used only once. A laryngeal mask usually consists of a supraglottic tube and a laryngeal mask head. These two parts are manufactured separately and then joined together by welding or by gluing. A typical example of such a laryngeal mask is shown in US 2003/037790. The supraglottic tube here has two parallel lumens, where the one lumen is the respiration lumen and the wide lumen is the esophageal lumen. On the other hand, US 2006/032505 describes a supraglottic tube, which is formed by three tubes running side by side. US 2007/028923 discloses a laryngeal mask, in which the supraglottic tube has a central respiration lumen and is shown in the wall dorsally and ventrally, each tube with a small diameter. Although neither the description nor the drawings indicate that the tube and the laryngeal mask head were manufactured separately, the construction alone leaves no other conclusion. The current shape of the tube makes it impossible to extract a core forming the lumen. Likewise, the tube, which has the lumen embedded in the wall, cannot be manufactured by any other method than extrusion or extrusion molding. Such a thick-walled tubing can also be shaped later by a heat treatment, if desired.
The invention is directed to a laryngeal mask according to WO 2010/060227. This laryngeal mask has a supraglottic tube, to which the laryngeal mask head is attached. Accordingly, the laryngeal mask head has a receiving bushing, into which the tube is inserted and can be welded or glued to the laryngeal mask head. Such a manufacturing process requires a great deal of manual work and thus is time-consuming and cost intensive accordingly. The supraglottic tube used here is manufactured by injection molding. Likewise, the laryngeal mask head is manufactured with a second injection molding form, also in two parts. The supraglottic tube, which usually has a length of approx. 20 cm, can therefore be manufactured by injection molding because, on the one hand, the wall thicknesses do not have any relevant differences in thickness and because, on the other hand, the cores forming the lumen are held movably as pulls or slides in a part of the mold while the ends of the cores can be held in an absolutely and force-fitting and form-fitting manner in another part of the mold and thus there cannot be any deformation of the cores. It therefore seems self-evident to manufacture the supraglottic tube as well as the laryngeal mask head together in one piece. However, this has seemingly not been found to be feasible in the past because corresponding movable cores are required in both the supraglottic tube and the laryngeal mask head, and these cores cannot be secured in a form-fitting and force-locking manner in the opposing part of the mold. At the prevailing pressure in such plastic injection molds, the cores cannot easily be pressed flatly at their ends. If with such a design, the mold to be filled with plastic, the cores would no longer close satisfactorily at the prevailing pressures or the pressures that occur, at the latest after a few thousand opening and closing operations of the injection mold and films or membranes, as they are known in the technical jargon would form on the abutting parts of the cores. In other words, the finished laryngeal masks would have to be tested to determine that both the respiration lumen and the esophageal lumen have unhindered passage. However, this would again require additional steps, additional test equipment and would thus cause increased costs. Therefore the object of the present invention is to manufacture a laryngeal mask made of plastic in one piece while avoiding the problems described above.